We have had 3 beautiful sea days sailing to Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. Arrived around 7 this morning in Simpson Harbour.

The Japanese occcupies this Is. during WW II and built lots of tunnels and caves as protection from the US bombing raids. This is a natural harbour and they had over 100 warships in here when we started bombing them and put most on them out of order or sunk. We have a wonderful lecturer on board telling us about this area during WWII and the present.

Walked into town this mroning and found a very nice Farmers Market. All sorts of vegies of which some I had never seen before. Came back to the ship after a couple of hours as it was very hot and the humidity was 90 per cent. Found the natives very friendly and glad we were here.

We have an active volcano on our starboard side and we have been sitting on our balcony watching it. It changes constantly and I have taken lots of pictures. It is absolutely fascinating.

This has been a very intrest day. A completely different culture than we have ever been a part of before.